Friday, January 14, 2011

Why I dislike the religious right

You know, I take a lot of shit from people who think I am somehow completely unfair and impartial because I refer to a couple of political celebrities/commentators as the "pudgy prophet of doom" and "Caribou Barbie". I haven't thought of a good nickname for Sean Hannity yet but I will, eventually. I have nothing against reasonable, thoughtful conservatives even though I am probably not going to agree with them on much other than the death penalty and gun rights but that's OK. As long as they are rational and objective, that's fine with me.

You may ask why do I pile on the hypocrisies of the right and not so much of the left? For one, I figure Fox News does that enough, even though most of it is wayyyyyyy off the mark and secondly, I grew up in an ultra-conservative, rigidly religious environment so I have far more experience with conservatives, especially the religious and fanatical right. I've met and spent time with people like Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Reed, George Allen, Jim Gilmore, and Bob Goodlatte. On the flip side, the only "liberal" politician I can remember meeting was Tipp O'Neill. I voted strictly Republican and even worked on campaigns doing things like standing outside polls and putting up signs until I was 20. That was when my presidential candidate at the time, John McCain, was the victim of mudslinging and lost the election to the person I would later to come to simultaneously loath and be fascinated by, George W. Bush. I didn't vote for Bush or Gore that year, I ended up campaigning for a third party candidate who didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.

So yes, I have spent most of my life around extremely conservative politics and in areas that always went heavily Republican. In fact, I still have a few acquaintances who swear up and down that Obama is going to have all the elderly people that don't agree with him sent to death camps or some nonsense like that. My distaste for the hard right comes not from a misunderstanding of it learned by watching too much MSNBC or listening to "Air America", which I have never listened to in case you are wondering. My mistrust and dislike comes from experience, of having been around it all of my years and knowing exactly what it is about.

2 comments:

I agree wholeheartedly! I come from a conservative background in a very Red state. I didn't like Bush or Gore in 2000, & learned how far Rove would take it when they did the hit job polls to hurt McCain. I learned to distrust the Republicans over the Bush years. I'm now a left leaning Independent. I sometimes agree with the Democrats, but I have 0% faith that they have the principals or backbone to actually accomplish it. The more the Republicans turn away from logic, science, & reason - the more they walk away from me. Somehow many Conservatives have gone off the deep-end... How many "founding documents constitutionalists" were silent as The Patriot Act I & II Trumped/Took away several of our protected Rights in the Bill of Rights? If Obama were to offer the exact same huge Federal Mandate No Child Left Behind Bill that was Put forward and passed by the Republicans of a few years ago - we would have Conservatives screaming that "the Socialist Dictator is trying brainwash our children to start a Marxist Revolution!" There is No dialogue or debate or appropriate response! I am not religious, I don't hate homosexuals, I realize "Free Trade" has taken far more jobs than Mexicans. I have never seen the Republicans fight as hard for their Pro-life crowd, nor their fiscal conservative crowd as they do for the wealthy... which I'm guessing has always been the case. We have a new Rep. congressman who wants to bring back the McCarthy era witchhunts for "UnAmerican Activities". Do we not have an ever increasing Homeland Security & Intelligence Community to deal with that? What has happened to the Party of Personal Liberty?Reagan raised taxes, offered amnesty to Mexicans, & valued Social Security... would he be welcome in todays Republican Party?